Vintage Computers Come Out of the Closet in CoreMemory

Amazing Machines of the Ages

Ah, the computers of yesteryear. So clunky, so slow, so ... beautiful? Photographer Mark Richards and author John Alderman show just how far computer design has come in the last 50 years with their new book, Core Memory: A Visual Survey of Vintage Computers.

Sound like a required text for a class at MIT? Maybe. But the way Richards coaxes intricate beauty from his silicon subjects is really remarkable. You might think of old-school computers as hideous eyesores fit only for the recycling bin or some forgotten corner of a nerd museum, but each of these exquisite pieces of machinery has a story to tell.

Left: Apple IYear: 1976Price: $666.66Iconic status: The first computer built by Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs lacks a true case and instead stands on its own, circuits bared for all to see.

Photo: Mark Richards

Apple Macintosh

Year: 1984Price: $2,495Iconic status: A computer worth throwing a big hammer through a giant TV screen for. The first Mac paves the way for millions of iPods, smarmy commercials and an operating system that challenges the industry to rethink simplicity and design.

Photo: Mark Richards

Illiac IV

Year: 1975Price: $31 millionIconic status: First housed at the University of Illinois and funded by Darpa, the Illiac IV supercomputer attracts the ire of antiestablishment students who protest its connection to the military-industrial complex. Not to be thwarted, the Illiac IV project moves to a secure location in Mountain View, California, but the damage is already done. The project loses steam, shutting down in 1982.

Photo: Mark Richards

Commodore 64

Year: 1982Price: $599Iconic status: Chances aren't bad that you had a Commodore 64 or know someone who did. This 64-KB rig is such a commercial success it sells 20 million units in its 11 years in production -- mostly due to it being marketed as a gaming rig. Today you can buy a PlayStation 3 for the same price (but half the satisfaction).

Photo: Mark Richards

CDC 6600

Year: 1964Price: $7 million to $10 million (estimate) Iconic status: An elegant face with eerie, glowing green eyes serves as the cover for what lurks beneath the graceful chassis: a multithreaded processor working in parallel, coupled with one of the world's first liquid-cooling systems.

Photo: Mark Richards

CDC 7600

Year: 1969Price: $9 million to $15 million (estimate) Iconic status: The successor to the CDC 6600, the 7600 is considered -- for a six-year period between 1969 and 1975 -- to be the fastest computer on earth. But the unit's frequent breakdowns and lack of included software prompt engineers to devise new standards for computer cooling and OS architecture.

Photo: Mark Richards

Core Memory

Year: 1949Price: (development cost unknown) Iconic status: It's the title of the book! It's also this chipset! And it's revolutionary. Before the invention of core memory, electrical storage, vacuum tubes and relay lines are commonplace ways to backlog data. Core memory, with its network of magnets, wires, grids and ferrite rings, allows data to be stored in stacks, retaining information even when the power is turned off. (This chip was pulled from a Cold War-era IBM.)

Photo: Mark Richards

DDP-116

Year: 1965Price: $28,500Iconic status: The first 16-bit microcomputer ever built, the DDP-116 is also the precursor to the DDP-516 -- the interface-messaging processor that becomes the core of the Arpanet, the grandfather of the modern internet.

Photo: Mark Richards

IBM Model 077

Year: 1937Price: $80 per month (rented) Iconic status: Before computers crunched numbers they sorted paper. The Depression-era Model 077 is one of IBM's most effective models, capable of feeding, comparing and sorting two groups of punched cards. Not impressed? The 77 does its job so well that IBM keeps it in production until 1957 -- 20 years after its introduction.

Photo: Mark Richards

IBM Model 604

Year: 1948Price: $26,000Iconic status: You know that wee graphing calculator sitting on your desk? The 604 can perform many of the same tasks, but with vacuum tubes instead of silicon chips and a size rivaling an industrial refrigerator.

Photo: Mark Richards

IBM System/360

Year: 1964Price: $133,000Iconic status: Utilizing technology that makes it compatible with other IBM machines, the System/360 can be easily synced with another computer (as long as it's an IBM) thus paving the way for quick, easy desktop upgrades.

Photo: Mark Richards

MIT Raytheon Apollo Guidance Computer

Year: 1965Price: $250,000Iconic status: How do you get to the moon? One supercomputer at a time. Well, actually two. This guidance system is a key component for every Apollo mission, with one unit housed in the main command module and one in the lunar module.

Photo: Mark Richards

PDP-10 Model KL-10 Digital Equipment

Year: 1968Price: $100,000 plusIconic status: Not only is it one of the cornerstones of modern hacking (the rig is adopted by primordial haxz0r hotbeds like MIT's AI Lab) but a PDP-10 clone is largely responsible for rendering much of the computer-generated graphics in the film Tron.

Photo: Mark Richards

Philco 212-017

Year: 1962Price: $1.8 millionIconic status: Built with insane in the mainframe number-crunching power intended for scientific and data-processing communities, Philco's 212 is the last computer the firm ever builds. In 1962, the Ford Motor Company buys Philco, which ends up creating cars radios.

Photo: Mark Richards

Sage IBM Air Defense System

Year: 1954 to 1963Price: $8 billion to $12 billion (estimate) Iconic status: Yes, that's billion with a B. Intended to detect a Soviet missile strike, the complex system links computer terminals, radar installations, airplanes and ships. It takes up four floors of a building the size of a football field, and includes an integrated cigarette lighter and ashtray on its control panel.

Photo: Mark Richards

WISC (Wisconsin Integrally Synchronized Computer)

Year: 1955Price: $50,000 (estimate) Iconic status: Built by theoretical physics student Gene Amdahl at the University of Wisconsin for his Ph.D. project, the computer uses old-school magnetic drum tech for memory storage. But it also sparks a lifelong interest for Amdahl: After graduating, he becomes the primary architect of the IBM System/360 and originates the theory of parallel computing.

Photo: Mark Richards

Z3 Adder

Year: 1941Price: UnknownIconic status: Built during World War II by civil engineer Konrad Zuse, the Z3 Adder is the world's first programmable, automatic electromagnetic computer. Germans scientists scoff at it, and the machine is ultimately ignored until Allied bombs destroy it in 1944. (The picture here is a reproduction built in 1999.)

Photo: Mark Richards

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